so... hope you like it. thanks to ramita for her help with this chapter, because it was suckish and now its not as suckish. so yeah. sorry about the fillery-ness, but the next chapter has a lot more plot, with the return of rose/scorpius! yay! ♥♥♥♥

"Oi, whore." Dom barked, leaping on the end of my bed and then bouncing off before my arm hit her. "Get up, we've got to get down to breakfast soon or all of the bacon will be gone."

I pressed my face further into my pillow and grunted like the elegant female that I am, once again waving my hand around in the air to try and hit my lovely best friend, before drawing it back into the warmth and protection of my duvet.

After waiting for a couple of seconds, during which I did not even attempt to haul my arse off the bed, Dom let out a noise that can only be described as a war cry and launched herself at the end of my bed, grabbing hold of my feet and attempting to pull me off the end of the mattress.

With a startled yelp I wrapped my fingers around the iron bars of my headboard, refusing to leave my comfy haven.

"GET OFF ME, YOU BLEEDING BITCH." I am such a pleasant person in the mornings.

"NEVER. I WANT MY BACON." Didn't Connor say something like that to me a few weeks ago? Those people are so good for each other it's not even funny.

"Then go and get your bloody bacon, but I want my beauty sleep."

"You need it, you look like a demented troll right now."

"You are such a cow."

"But you love me anyway."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that."

"I told you that you wouldn't be able to get her up." Penny laughed, and I opened one of my eyes a crack so that I could stare at her. She was sitting on the end of her bed, her legs crossed and her hair tied in a long brown braid to her waist.

"Oi, what's the supposed to mean?" I grunted into my pillow, and Penny laughed again.

There was a moment of blessed silence, and for one moment I actually allowed myself to believe that they were going to bugger off to breakfast and leave me to sleep in peace. My dear, naive mind actually forgot that Merlin hates me.

"On the count of three?" What the hell is Dom on about?

"On the count of three." Penny confirmed, and I could hear the shuffling of her converse on the carpets as she crossed the room. What are they going to do on the count of three?

"One." Dom said slowly.

"Two." Penny followed.

"Three." They said in unison, and before I could even think about opening my gob and asking them what the fuck they thought they were nattering on about, they had grabbed hold of one side of my duvet each and yanked - hard.

With a startled screech I tumbled out of the bed, whipping around in some kind of horizontal pirouette and landing with a dull thump on the floorboards.

Owwww. The pain. Owwww.

"I think you two may have broken my boobs." Ah, the joys of being me are almost unparalleled.

~*~

As we walked to breakfast – after the two of them locked me in the bathroom with a pair of joggers and a t-shirt and told me to get changed or very unpleasant things were going to happen, I decided to just do what I was told – I suddenly realised that this would be the first time that I would be face-to-face with James after the disaster that was yesterday.

The only thing that I can say actually went well on that godforsaken date was that it seemed to irritate the shit out of James.

Seriously. He went through most of the afternoon with his face the colour of a beetroot. It was rather amusing, now I think back on it.

"You look like you're going to be sick – are you alright?" Penny asked, brushing a few strands of hair out of her eyes as she peered at me in worry.

"What? Ace. Fabby. Wonderful. Marvellous. Fan-Bloody-Tastic." I muttered, and I didn't miss the way Dom and Penny exchanged the 'is there something wrong with her?' look.

Penny shook her head and shoved open the door, immediately glancing down the table to try and find the other three. My heart rate quickened slightly as I saw Fred leaning across the table, smearing some marmalade across Connor's forehead – I had forgotten that they would also have questions as to what the fuck I was thinking yesterday.

I think Connor expressed his opinion pretty loudly yesterday, but the look on his face is bugging me – the mixture of suspicion and realisation – what the fuck is that supposed to mean?

Penny seemed to notice my hesitation, because she waited for Dom to skip ahead and then turned to me, one of her eyebrows cocked and her hand reaching out to pat me comfortingly on the elbow.

"Summer... well; you know you skipped dinner yesterday." I nodded, brushing some hair out of my eyes as I stared at her warily. "Well, James wasn't there either. But Fred and Connor were talking about what happened on your date with Kyle Davies yesterday – something about you guys sucking face in the middle of the shop. Are you worried about seeing those three – because you look like you're going to be sick right now."

I do? I need to learn to control my facial expressions better.

"No, I just..." I sighed, rubbing the palms of my hands over my eyes. It's far too early for conversations like this – it's only about half eleven in the morning. "I don't know. I need more sleep."

"You are unbelievably lazy, you know."

"That hurts, Penny." I pouted. She grinned and pulled me into a hug, patting me on the back and grabbing my hand.

"Now come on – you can't avoid them for the rest of your life." I opened my mouth to rebuke her, but before I had the chance she had started walking, me stumbling along behind her like some kind of blind beaver.

This is exactly what every girl wants to look like, obviously.

James glanced up as we got closer and a small amount of blood rushed into his cheeks, at exactly the same time I blushed and started to stare very hard at the floor. Penny sat down next to Fred, subtly grabbing hold of my wrist and pulling me down on the bench next to her.

"Good morning." Connor said, looking up from his bacon with a smirk already set on his face. I did my best not to scowl as I tucked into the plate of scrambled eggs that Fred had handed to me.

"Morning." I grunted. James and Connor exchanged a look of understanding.

"What creative way did you wake her up today then, Dommie?" James asked, and my mood was not improved with the knowledge that pretty much all of my friends knew that I was a bit of a crazy!super!bitch in the very early hours of the morning.

Yes, I do class half past eleven as very early in the morning. And no, that does not make me lazy.

"Rolled her out of the bed with her duvet. Nearly broke her boobs, according to her." I glared up from my dinner to shoot a couple of death rays from my eyes.

"Nah, you don't want to break them, Dom." Fred chipped in, flicking his hair out of his eyes with some kind of vicious, neck snapping motion. "I'd have nothing to look at in the mornings."

What did he just say?

"Fred!" Dom said, her mouth falling open in indignation. Penny elbowed him roughly in the side (I would like to point out that she winced and clutched her arm moments later) and Connor choked on the bacon he was eating.

James just laughed. Git.

"What? You think I'm going to hang out with two hot girls – sorry Dom, you don't count – and not act like a seventeen year old bloke? You guys think too much of me." Fred shrugged, as though it was no big deal.

I was still struggling to speak.

"So what do you stare at on me, Freddie?" Penny asked indignantly, tossing her braid over her shoulder so she could cock an eyebrow at him.

Fred's expression switched from a cocky and self assured smirk to that of a deer caught in headlights. He ran his hands through his hair and then laid them on the table.

"Nothing. I'm not an animal, Penelope; I don't stare at anything on you. You're my friend; I wouldn't do that to you." He said calmly, blinking a couple of times as he looked into her eyes.

"What the bleeding fuck?" Ah, I seem to have found my voice again. "So you just stare at me like that then, Fred? Well that's bloody charming, isn't it?"

"I have a feeling that you would have taken that better if I had mentioned it at dinner as opposed to breakfast – we all know that you like mornings about as much as Voldemort liked Uncle Harry." I gaped at him for a moment.

"REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT I LIKE MORNINGS, I DO NOT LIKE THE IDEA OF YOU STARING AT MY BLOODY BOOBS WHEN YOU'RE BORED." I yelled. The people within a good square ten metres of us all went silent, turning to look at us with either amusement or jealousy splashed across their faces.

And the sad news is, I might be the only non-Weasley female in the world that doesn't want Fred Weasley staring at their boobs.

It is far, far too early for all of this.

We lapsed back into silence again, only the sound of our cutlery scraping the plates to make any noise. The only difference of now to any other morning was the fact that James and I were both avoiding each other's eyes, and Connor was staring between the pair of us with a curious look on his face as he chewed absent mindedly on a piece of toast.

Honestly, it's like he's turned into a bloody sniffer dog lately.

"So, where's your little fuck-buddy this fine morning?" James asked, looking at me with narrowed eyes, his hands clenched rigidly around his fork.

Freaking cheek of him! I would kick him if my legs didn't feel like giant tubes of lead.

"I dunno. Where's your whore?" I asked, putting my forkful of eggs down so I could cross my arms and glare at him. James merely smirked, one of his eyebrows quirking up coolly and his shoulders relaxing. He leaned forwards on his elbows, his fists under his chin.

"Do you have a problem with Erin, Summer?" He asked. "I can't imagine a reason that you would have a problem with her."

His tone was mocking, his eyes dancing with amusement as he watched my struggle to say something that wouldn't attract the attention of my friends.

"I don't have a problem with Erin." I shrugged, tucking some hair behind my ear. "I think she seems like a very, ahem, cheerful person. Do you have some kind of problem with Kyle?" We were speaking in code, taunting the other until one slipped up.

"No, none at all." That's funny, considering he spent half the visit either yelling or glaring at him. "Hmm... just out of curiosity, Summer – what is his surname?"

Oh, the crafty bastard.

"Um..." As I floundered, Penny looked up from her dinner and Fred smirked. "Well, it's obviously..." Penny rolled her eyes and nudged me slightly in the ribs, and as I glanced at her she mouthed 'Davies'. "Davies!"

Penny ducked her head so that I wouldn't see her giggling. Oh, I love my best friends.

"Right, and what year is he in?" Well... if he is in my potions class then he must be in the same year as me, so therefore, he is a seventh year. I should most definatley consider a future as a detective.

"Seventh year, of course."

"Right, and what –"

"James, my love, why are you so interested in Kyle all of a sudden? Is there something that you haven't told us?" I cocked an eyebrow, and Fred's booming laugh bounced across the Great Hall, causing the nosy buggers sitting near to us to turn in our direction again.

"Hey, Summer." Huh, that's funny. It must be because we were talking about Kyle – all of a sudden I can hear him talking to me. James is even glaring over my shoulder like he would be if Kyle was standing behind me.

He is standing behind me, isn't he?

"Hi, Kyle." I said awkwardly, twisting around slightly in my seat so I could glance at him over my shoulder. He was wearing a pair of baggy jeans – you know the ones I'm talking about, the ones with about fifty pockets and the crotch where the knees should be – and a blue shirt with the sleeves pushed up.

"Can I sit down?" Connor's brow furrowed, Dom laid her spoon down on her plate so she could stare at the pair of us, Penny raised her eyebrows and glanced at me for an explanation, Fred stroked his imaginary Dumbledore beard and stared between the two of us, and James... well, James looked like he didn't give a flying monkey's arse who was standing behind me.

He was actually digging into his breakfast again, our conversation about the very person standing behind me seemingly already forgotten.

Maybe he has short term memory loss. He should really look into getting that fixed.

"Um, sure." I said, shuffling up slightly on the bench. Kyle grinned at me and sat down, reaching over me and taking the platter of toast from the middle of the table.

Connor didn't look happy, considering he had been reaching for it at the time. But hey-ho, life goes on. Con doesn't want a spare tyre by the time he's twenty five, anyway.

"So, I was actually wondering whether you wanted to come down to the Quidditch pitch and make out." Kyle said, demolishing half a piece of toast with one enormous bite, chewing with his gob hanging open as he waited for my answer.

Does he have short term memory loss too?

Maybe he and James should start a club.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that he is trying to help me by pissing off James and everything, but I thought that I had made it pretty clear that we were only a 'couple' for that one date, and nothing else.

I don't want to complete fuck things up between James and me.

I may begin to get snogging withdrawal if I have to wait too long to snog him again.

"Sure, I need to talk to you about something anyway." I said, staring at him pointedly. Looks like he's going to need something a little more than a look for him to remember that the date was bloody fake.

"Great, I'll see you there in five minutes then." He said, and before I could even open my mouth to say goodbye, he had pressed his lips down against mine, leapt up off the bench and headed out of the Great Hall after his friends.

There was a few moments of painful silence as the six of us looked between each other.

"Well, I don't really get what's going on here," Fred said, stroking his imaginary Dumbledore beard again, "But I would like you all to know that I have now decided to grow a beard."

"Why?" Dom sighed, slapping an over-exaggerated hand to her forehead.

"Because they're cool. And I want to be able to curl it – it would be a talking point, wouldn't it? The bloke that can tuck his beard into his socks."

Oh good lord. I go back to what I usually say – only Fred.

"That sounds... very unique, Fred." Penny laughed, shaking her head at his blatant weirdness. I'm sorry, but there is no nice was to put it. Fred is a freak, and that is that.

But I love him anyway.

"You know what I was thinking?" Dom said, and she began to talk louder when she noticed Fred open his mouth to actually start guessing. "That we haven't actually held any parties since the beginning of the year – don't you think we should get round to it?"

Urgh. Not another Dominique Weasley party.

Would you like a brief summary of what happens at basically every single one of those?

I don't know why I bothered asking, because I'm going to tell you anyway.

I, being the avid party animal that I am, decide to stay sober and look after Fred, Dom and James after they get so hammered that they can't even remember their own names. Fred is the worst. He always ends up taking off all of his clothes and mounting the nearest table, where he exhibits the way that he believes that, and I quote, 'Sexin' Quidditch Playas' should dance.

After about an hour, Connor gets bored of sitting around drinking lemonade and bogs off to find some alcohol – generally after Dom has begun to snog her random bloke in the middle of the room – which results in him also getting hammered.

The only difference is Connor tends to curl up in a ball on the nearest chair and sob about how no one loves him.

My friends are such freaks.

This leaves Penny and I sitting in the corner, making small talk and filing our nails. Then Kane will mosey over, bog off with Penny and get her drunk. She generally returns to the dorm about half past six the next morning.

The grand finale is, of course, Scorpius finding three blondes, dragging them to the middle of the dancefloor and grinding against them like his life depends on it.

Yup. Fun times.

"Oh god, please no." I sighed, slamming my head into my hands.

"So, we should probably have it in the next couple of days," Dom continued, acting as though I hadn't even spoken, "Otherwise someone else will throw the first party of the year."

"Why does it even matter who throws it? They're all exactly the same, anyway." I sighed. But it's true; they're all basically the same event. Scary amounts of illegally-acquired alcohol, lots of half dressed people wandering around and my best friends acting like complete and utter tits in public.

"Right – so we should probably hold it next Saturday then, right?" Fred said, once again stroking his Dumbledore beard. The others nodded in general assent.

I just love being ignored.

"Great, I'll start telling people." James nodded, and Fred motioned to himself indicating that he would do the same.

Oh good lord. Fred's idea of telling people is standing in the middle of the great hall with a foghorn and blasting it out until he has everyone's attention.

My ears ring for days afterwards, it's a bloody pisstake.

"Seriously, do we have to hold a party?" I sighed, resigning myself to the fact that I might indeed have to once again drinking my body weight in orange juice and looking after several piss drunk friends. As you can see, I am just thrilled about that fact.

"Don't you have a manwhore to go and snog?" James snapped, looking at me for the first time since our conversation before.

"Yeah." I muttered, and pulling myself up off the bench, I quickly made my way out of the great hall.

~*~

"Oi, what the bleeding hell do you think you're playing at?" I yelled to Kyle as I crossed the Quidditch pitch, heading for where he was standing.

He turned around slowly, ruffling his blonde hair and looking at me with a giant smirk set on his face. What is he smirking about? Urgh. I've already gone off him.

"And here was me thinking you actually wanted a hand with pissing Potter off. You're really going to have to work on making your wishes more clear, my love." I crossed my arms over my chest as I finally reached him, but he just rocked back on his heels and smirked at me.

"Yeah, I did – yesterday. So what the fuck are you thinking, coming up to me at breakfast – and in front of all of my friends! What the bleeding fuck are you playing at?" I ran my hands through my side fringe and glared at him in frustration.

"Well, I actually needed to talk to you." He shrugged, his muscular shoulders rippling in his tight grey t-shirt.

"What about?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"How would you feel about going on a date with me?"

What?

"What?" Hey, look at that – I just repeated my thoughts.

"Well, as much as I enjoyed shoving my tongue down your throat yesterday, it wasn't exactly what I would call a date. So what do you think about going on a proper date with me?"

I'm sorry, maybe I didn't make myself clear. What I meant before was – what?

"... why would we go on a proper date? We only went on a date yesterday to piss James off." Kyle rolled his eyes at me.

"Well, for the same reason that I asked you out on a date in the first place – I think you're fit, and I actually want to go on a date with you because you want to go on a date with me."

Oh shit.

Now would be an ideal time for Fred to zoom past on a broomstick singing the national anthem.

"I'm sorry Kyle - I probably should have made this pretty clear from the beginning. I don't date, well, pretty much ever. And as much as this is going to make me seem like a heartless bitch, I might as well just come out with it – I only agreed to date you because I wanted to piss off James."

Kyle's brow furrowed and he ran his hands through his hair again.

"Oh." Another sweep through of the fringe. "Alright."

"I'm sorry. That's why I said no when you first asked me out." I tried to explain.

"Nah, it's alright." This time it was a neck-snapping movement to try and bounce the fringe out of his eyes. "I should have realised yesterday, you like Potter." With a resigned shrug, he turned his back on me and started to head towards the exit of the Quidditch Pitch.

I could have let him go.

I could have just let him leave, let this random stranger think whatever they hell they wanted, because it didn't matter what they believed. That's what a smart person would have done – just moved on and forget this little blip on their radar.

But I think we established a while ago that I am not a smart person.

"I do not like James." I said, grabbing hold of his shoulder and whipping him around to face me. "Not in the way you mean, anyway." I clarified.

"Then why don't you want him dating other people?" He snapped, and I quailed under the probing look he shot me. It was like he was reading my mind, like he was determined to coax all of the secrets out of me – and I didn't like it one bit.

"That's private." I snapped. Kyle nodded tauntingly, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips again. "And it doesn't matter – all you need to know is that I don't like James. It's because I don't like you, that's the reason that I said no."

Where are all the little firsties that go 'BURN' when you need them?

Midget buggers.

"Charming." Kyle snorted. "Well... if you don't like Potter –"

"James." I sliced through. "His name is James, not Potter."

"Whatever. As I was saying, if you don't like James, then where is the problem in going on a date with me? You might end up liking me." A lecherous smirk twisted the corners of his mouth, and he folded his arms across his wide chest as he watched me struggle to reply.

"I don't want to date." I said, and Kyle's smirk widened ominously.

"Well, I want to date you." He said. "So it looks like we have a bit of a problem."

I licked my dry lips.

"What do you mean?"

"What part of that sentence was hard to understand?" He asked, rolling his eyes and smirking at my seemingly-lacking brain power. "I want to date you. Simple enough for you?"

I floundered around for words, opening and closing my mouth like a goldfish.

"But... why?" I eventually managed to get out.

To this Kyle just shrugged, once again running his hands through his fringe. The thing is going to be a bloody grease pit if he's not careful.

"I don't know. But this is it – I'm going to get you to date me. You'll have to give in eventually." With a cheery grin and a smack on the lips – I had been too shocked to pull away at this point – he headed back off across the pitch.

What in the name of Fred's snitch patterned undercrackers is going on here?

~*~

Summer,

How are you, my love? You haven't really written home much since the beginning of the year, and I was just wondering how you are. Your dad is away on business again – he was only back for a week last time before he had to leave again, so I'm feeling a little lonely. Do write back soon, won't you pet? I need someone to talk to.

And this is where the guilt rushes in. Honestly, how does mum manage to make me feel like this without even unleashing the puppy dog eyes? It's a talent, I tell you.

I wonder why dad is going on so many business trips at the moment. He was away for a lot of the summer as well.

The cat leapt up onto the settee last week and knocked over my glass of red wine – long story short, we now have a tie dye couch. I like to think that it adds a little something extra to the room, but your father disagrees. You know that he never liked the cat anyway – that's probably the main reason that he hit the roof.

Of course dad hit the roof. He hates – well, he hates most things – but he hates our cat more than most things in the world. Seriously, I don't know what he has against Oliver but it's like every little thing that he does pisses him off.

If your grandmother ever comes around for dinner then I will ask her to try out one of those house hold spells that she's so good at, and see if she can get it out. I've never quite managed to grasp the concept of them. Thank Merlin we have house elves, that's all I'm going to say!

Anyway, remember my love, study hard and do all your homework, eat a healthy and balanced diet and make sure that you keep out of detention with those friends of yours. Keep safe and happy,

Mummy.

“Letter from your mum?” James asked, dropping down onto the bench next to me. I nodded and took another sandwich. James lapsed back into silence.

“You alright?” He tried again, and I nodded again. “You’re still pissed off with me for this morning, I take it.” He sighed.

What happened this morning? Oh right. The argument.

“No, not really.” I sighed, shaking my head and lying my head down on his shoulder. “But it’s nothing, I’m fine.” I muttered, and James sighed.

“Whatever it is, it’s going to be fine.” He said, playing with my fingers on the table. He took the letter and scanned it quickly. “Come on princess, it’s not that bad. Families have little spats all the time. What’s also bugging you?”

I elbowed him in the gut like the sweet and charming person that I am.

“Summer. You can’t hide anything from me very well. Tell me.” I looked up into James’ hazel eyes – wait, hazel? How long have his eyes been hazel? Since when have his eyes had golden bits in them, as well? – and moved my head sideways slightly my cheek was nestled into the crook of his neck.

“Kyle is being a tosspot.” I grumbled, and I could hear the rumbling in James’ chest as he chuckled.

“Problems with the boyfriend, is there.” I swung my leg backwards so that I could give him a swift kick in the ankle, and the sharp hissing noise into my hair told me that I seemed to have hit the right spot.

“He’s not my boyfriend, you git. But yes, we have a problem.” James grinned, and I pulled my head off his neck so I could look at him.

“What’s he done? Do you want me to knock the shit out of him for you?” Hmm, tempting. Very tempting. Maybe if he had the stuffing knocked out of him, he might also have a little bit of sense knocked in to him.

Yeah, pacifism all the way, that’s me.

“Nah, it’s alright.” I smiled, and James nodded warily, still waiting for me to tell him what had happened. “He wants to go on another date – and he’s not very happy that I said no, I didn’t want to go on another date with him.”

James chuckled and mussed his hair gently with his hand.

“Bloody typical. That would happen to you. Well, on the bright side, the party is going to be held this Saturday.”

THE BRIGHT SIDE?! THE FUCKING BRIGHT SIDE?!

“Great.” I groaned, and James laughed his booming James-laugh, and I couldn’t help but join in.